Like Unto Moses

[Shimon]

 

“A prophet will the L-RD thy G-d raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” 

• Deuteronomy 18:15, JPS 1917 Tanach

Moshe speaks to the B’nei Yisrael (Children of Israel), concerning their own implied request for an intermediary, “according to all that thou didst desire of the L-RD thy G-d in Horeb [Sinai]  in the day of the assembly, saying: ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the L-RD my G-d, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not ‘” (Deuteronomy 18:16).

H’Shem responded: “‘They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him’” (Deuteronomy 18:17-19).

Who is this mysterious prophet like unto Moshe, who speaks in H’Shem’s name?  “As the first Redeemer [Moses], so the last Redeemer [Messiah]” (Numbers Rabbah 11:2). Moses was the first redeemer, who led the B’nei Yisrael out of Egypt; according to the sages, the final Redeemer, Messiah will be like unto Moses. The prophet mentioned, here, in this passage is Moshiach. He is raised up from amongst his own brethren (the Jewish people); and he speaks the words that H’Shem commands him to speak.

Yeshua was raised up from amongst his own brethren. In the Bris Chadashah, he claims not to speak his own words; rather, he says of himself, that he speaks the words that the Father has permitted him to speak. “Because I do not speak on my own, but the one having sent me [Elokim] HaAv [the Father] has given me a mitzvah (commandment) of what I may say and what I may speak” (Yochanan 12:49, Orthodox Jewish Bible).

Moshe served as an intermediary between G-d and B’nei Yisrael, “I stood between the L-RD and you at that time, to declare unto you the word of the L-RD” (Deuteronomy 5:5, JPS 1917 Tanach). In regard to Moshiach, he now stands between G-d and man, “For Ad’nai echad hu (there is one G-d) and there is also metavekh echad (one melitz – mediator)” (1 Timototiyos 2:5, OJB).

“Like the first redeemer so will the final redeemer be.  The first redeemer was Moses, who appeared to them and disappeared.  The final redeemer will also appear to them and then disappear” (commentary on Shemot 2, Soncino Talmud). According to the midrash, Moses “disappeared” for three months, when he was hid by his parents, in order to escape the harsh decree against the newborn, even before being placed in a basket in the River. Later in life, he also “disappeared, when he fled to Midian for forty years.

The commentary mentioned above explains, that so too would Moshiach, the final redeemer disappear.  “Because of oppression and judgment He was taken away. As for His generation, who considered? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people” (Isaiah 53:8, TLV). Yeshua has “disappeared,” even vanished from before the eyes of the Jewish people (2 Corinthians 3:15-16). Yet, “The one having been taken up from you into Shomayim, will also come again” (Gevurot [Acts] 1:11, OJB).